Monifa Bandele And The High Stakes Of The Maternal Justice Movement

Monifa Bedele grew up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, with both of her parents being activists. In fact, her mom is a social worker and served as a director of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) when it first began taking classes. Her dad did tenant organizing.

“A lot of what I do today in terms of my advocacy and activism is because of what I saw around me,” says Monifa.

Following her parents’ footsteps, she is currently the Senior Vice President of Maternal Justice Programs, covering everything from maternal health and fighting the maternal mortality crisis to school safety and ensuring children have safe places to learn and play. She oversees initiatives that affect mothers, which include access to childcare, protecting abortion access, and all general policies needed for women to have a healthy way of raising children.

Monifa has worked at MomsRising for the last 12 years and now serves as Chief Operating Officer. She came to this position because she was looking for a new role after the 2010 midterm elections. MomsRising was looking for someone to work on workplace justice. Having previously taken the Amtrak to Washington, DC, two times a week. The job was completely remote, which was rare for the time, giving her the opportunity to stay home with her two daughters when they were young.

“On top of that, I felt that the work was amazing, right? This idea of organizing moms to push policies that work for moms—it makes sense. When you’re making policies around that, you should make sure you’re consulting parents,” says Monifa.

Monifa also volunteers at The Movement for Black Lives, an organization that supports community safety and combats the lingering effects of slavery that are felt today. Additionally, a big part of her volunteer work is addressing prison reform and mass incarceration, which has links to her maternal advocacy day job.

“An overwhelming majority of women incarcerated are mothers,” shares Monifa. “When families are unstable, the communities are unsafe. We really see mass incarceration as family separation. Women who give birth in prison [are affected]. There are also long-term economic effects, for example, trying to find a job [after incarceration]. A lot of the time women are the primary partners for people who are incarcerated… or now subsidizing the household,” she continued.

MomsRising’s current goal is to save Medicaid. The organization has mobilized thousands of mothers to Washington, DC, and is meeting with members of Congress to have them vote against the Big Beautiful Bill, or as Monifa puts it, the “big bad bill.”

“Even though the bill has passed and been signed, we’re still fighting.”

The group launched its campaign, Medicaid Summer, in 2025. The campaign included mothers and children dressed as bees, buzzing around and sharing the stories of those affected by Medicaid cuts with representatives.

“Still almost got arrested,” Monifa admitted.

“It’s been really devastating because we have dedicated so much time trying to lower the maternal death rate in the United States, which is the highest among developed countries, and now we have this attack on healthcare, we know that is going to drive this number back up.”